Hertfordshire CCTV Partnership. Annual Operations Report. By Michael Read Operations Manager 2014/15

Transcription

1 Hertfordshire CCTV Partnership Annual Operations Report By Michael Read Operations Manager 2014/15

2 P a g e 2 Contents Partnership Overview... 3 Control Room Improvements... 3 Expansion... 3 Communications Networks... 4 Extent of the Camera System Network in 2014/ Table 1 - Cameras 2014/ Projected Growth... 5 Control Room Performance 2014/ Improved Communication Links... 6 Shop / Pub Watch... 6 Independent Inspectors... 6 CCTV Maintenance Contractor... 7 Eurovia... 7 CCTV Monitoring Contractor... 7 Broadland Security... 7 APPENDIX 1 (Camera Network Details)... 7 Extent of Service CCTV PTZ Town Centre and Neighbourhood Cameras ANPR Cameras Re-deployable Cameras Schools... 8 Schools Broadband... 9 BT Broadband System... 9 North Hertfordshire IP systems include... 9 Bedfordshire County Council... 9 APPENDIX 2 (Summary Improvements during 2014/15) APPENDIX 3 (Control Room Statistics) CCTV Cameras ADPRO Cameras Police Evidence Public Requests Out of Hours Calls Incident and Arrest figures for 2013/14 and 2014/ CENTRAL BEDFORDSHIRE COUNCIL EAST HERTFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL HERTSMERE BOROUGH COUNCIL NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL (Areas) DVD Prodcutions Figures Evidential DVDs Produced 1 st April st March Evidential DVDs Produced 1 st April st March APPENDIX 4 (CCTV-IT) APPENDIX 5 (Independent Inspectors Report) Introduction Achievements Code of Practice Recommendations... 16

3 P a g e 3 Hertfordshire CCTV Partnership 2014/2015 Annual Report Prepared by Michael Read CCTV Manager Partnership Overview The Hertfordshire CCTV Partnership comprises Stevenage Borough Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, East Hertfordshire District Council, and Hertsmere Borough Council. The Partnership s CCTV control room operates out of Stevenage and provides 24 hours CCTV coverage 365 days a year across Hertfordshire and Central Bedfordshire. Partnership Clients: Letchworth Heritage Foundation Roaring Meg Retail Park Stevenage Leisure Park Ampthill Town council Central Bedfordshire Council The Plaza Development Stevenage Hertfordshire County Council (Schools) Stevenage Borough Council (Out of Hours) We continue to maintain our status of being one of the largest geographical CCTV networks in Europe and are actively seeking to add more sites to our estate. At the time of publication, the total number of cameras monitored by the Control Room is 537 which is an increase of 15 over the 522 in Three of our Rapid Response Mobile units have become beyond economical repair bringing the number of allocable units to 28 deployable cameras which are regularly deployed in areas which develop high levels of antisocial behaviour (ASB). These units continue to be successful having removed ASB from a number of areas within East Herts, Stevenage Borough North Herts and Hertsmere. During 2014/15 these cameras have been invaluable generating 35 pieces of evidential footage. Control Room Improvements Expansion Our main database BORIS now records and regulates all of our frontline operations and is supported by a new bespoke database application called ABOT (Automated Back Office Tasks). As its name indicates ABOT carries out all the repetitive house-keeping tasks required by this busy environment, daily reports which are sent to CCTV and council managers. There are monthly reports that are sent to the council for publication on the internet providing councillors and members of the public with access to monitored crime incident and arrest data for the preceding months. Earlier this year further investment in IT required an upgrade to MS Office 2010 keeping us inline with the council s latest upgrade.

4 Further development of these invaluable tools is expected during the next 12 months. P a g e 4 The latest ADPRO Fastrace 2 was installed during To date 5 locations have moved onto this system and it is envisaged that more locations will follow suit by the end of the year. Whilst Fastrace 1, (Gold), is still in operation it is no longer supported by Xtrallis and spare parts are no longer available. Communications Networks The control room continues to make good use of its three main communications systems alerting controller to incidents that are in progress across the estate: Airwave (police) Radios Shop/Pub-link Radios Direct telephone link to the police s central control room (CCR) This year has seen the addition of two digital shop/pub link radios, which are currently being used in Hitchin and Stevenage. User numbers have continued to fluctuate as retail and licensed premises come and go. Across Stevenage, East Herts, North Herts and Hertsmere we currently have 251 users activated on the system. During the period 01/04/14-15 recorded event were initiated from the following sources: Event Initiated by Events % of Total Police Attended Resulting Arrests ADPRO Police Control Controller Airwaves Other Post Event RIPA Shop/Pub Link Wellfield Court Total As more towns make the move from an analogue to a digital service we will have to review our analogue hardware. This equipment is in daily use providing end users with reassurance of a prompt response. Extent of the Camera System Network in 2014/15 The following table shows the breakdown of cameras currently deployed across the estate. This includes schools and IP addressable cameras. I am currently reviewing the status of the shoe box cameras with a replacement programme in place. The cameras that are being replaced are beyond economical repair and so far 13 Redvision cameras have been purchased and installed.

5 P a g e 5 Table 1 - Cameras 2014/15 Camera Type Totals MICKEY 112 SHOE BOX 83 ADPRO CAMERAS (Static) 164 ADPRO CAMERAS (Pan Tilt and Zoom) 109 MOBILE ASB CAMERAS (Pan Tilt and Zoom) 30 DOME 12 STATIC 14 REDVISION 13 Total 537 The images from all cameras are continuously recorded and monitored, apart from the mobile cameras, at the Stevenage Control Room which is staffed on a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year basis. Projected Growth This has been a challenging time for everyone concerned with the current economic climate and austerity measures in place; however the strategy for the Hertfordshire CCTVP is one of growth. On the 4 th November 2014 the HCCTVP became a PLC with Keith Moore confirmed as Managing Director. I have just been in negotiations with East Herts District Council, to continue the great reputation of providing an OOH service that the control room has, and have agreed to take on the Lone Workers line and Business Continuity Plans for the Borough Council and went live in January East Herts District Council has just increased their deployable cameras by three and will soon be utilising these by the end of the year of I have also worked towards taking on Maintenance Contracts with our existing customer and clients and have had some success in converting them and will continue to expand over the next couple of years. To date we have had enquiries from Arlesey Town Council, Bedfordshire to install and monitor 3 cameras, Little Wymondley, Redbrick Property Management, Stevenage with regards to installing and monitoring Fastrace 2 s including one new school in Watford and the MSCP in Hertford. All of which are in the early stages and hopefully by the end of the year should be on board. Control Room Performance 2014/15 During the last 12 months the evidential download suite has been manned by PCSO s or Police Officers that are on light duties and/or otherwise unable to perform in a front line role. Although this means that resident officers only stay with us for a relatively short period of time it does mean that the pool of trained officers available to carry out downloads has increased at a greater rate than normal. The control room now has a pool of 27 officers available to carry

6 P a g e 6 out police and public downloads. In the last financial year officers have download 5,478 pieces of evidential footage. In December 2012 control room supervisors took on the responsibility for handling public reviewing requests. Since my appointment as Operations Manager, I have taken on the responsibilities of Data Controller relieving Keith Moore of this position. When it was decided that CCTV staff would take an active part in processing these requests, there was an expectation that the number of calls would be approximately one or two a month. This very quickly grew to 12 a month in the first year and has stayed at this figure. To date we have processed a total of 342 public requests. As well as Members of the public, this service has been used by solicitors in private complaints, Insurance companies that are looking to substantiate motor claims, and council officers to clarify the order of events leading to criminal damage to facilities across their estates. We continue to rely on BORIS to record, and standardise our handling of these requests and processes all communications between these clients and ourselves. Incident types continue to vary from day to day. In the 12 months from 1 st April 2014 CCTV operators have monitored 3,819 incidents (Previously 3,668) 2,878 of which were attended by police officers (Previously 2,861) that ended in 957 arrests (Previously 967). Although arrests have dropped by 10 the CCTV monitored events are showing a small increase on the previous year, It would therefore seem fair to assume a similar level of increase during 2015/16. Further information relating to the above statistics is included at Appendix 3 of this report. Improved Communication Links Shop / Pub Watch As part of the licensing regulations all Pubs are encouraged to be part of a town wide communications network. The partnership is actively involved with Pub Watch schemes in Stevenage (inc' the Leisure Park), Hertford, Hitchin, Letchworth, Bishops Stortford and Ware. In order to stay in line with upgrades to some town radio equipment this year CCTV added two digital radios to its analogue system. As mentioned earlier these radios are currently in use in Stevenage and Hitchin. The Shop/Pub-link radios have been involved in 750 incidents, ranging from shoplift to drug or alcohol related offences, 561 of which the police attended resulting in 248 arrests in the 12 months from 1 st April Independent Inspectors Since 1998 the CCTV Independent Inspectors have supplied a comprehensive annual report to members containing observations and recommendations. Many of which have been adopted. The 2014/15 Inspectors annual report continues to show the conformance of CCTV in a favourable light with no reported breaches of the Partnership s Code of Practice. Headed by Jane Clark the inspectors attend site on a weekly basis at a time that is convenient to themselves without prior notification to CCTV staff thus ensuring that they see the department in a true operational mode.

7 P a g e 7 Due to their personal situations three of our regular inspectors have now retired but two of these positions have already been filled. On behalf of the Partnership I would like to thank Jane and her team for their work in ensuring that full compliance is adhered to within the control room. A full copy of the independent inspector report is available in appendix 5 CCTV Maintenance Contractor Eurovia During the second half of 2014 our maintenance contractors Quadrant Security Solutions expired. On the 1 st of July our new provider Eurovia took over the role, having won the contract under the procurement measures that was put out to tender. After having Quadrant in place for such a long time and having such a large estate it was inevitable that over the first few months there would be one or two teething problems, but I am happy to report that things are looking promising. The current contract requires one engineer three days per week. CCTV Monitoring Contractor Broadland Security The contracted security company, Broadland Security, has now completed 5 years monitoring within the CCTV Control Room. The 5 year contract relating to this work came into effect from January 2008 as part of a Procurement and Best Value process. In March 2015 Broadland were successful in winning the next 5 years. Broadland staff comprises 1 full time manager, 13 full time staff and 1 part time team member. In addition to their frontline role, operators continue to undertake the monitoring of the out of hours phone line on behalf of Stevenage Borough Council with very impressive results. In 2014/15 CCTV operators have achieved some outstanding results leading to arrests including high profile Robbery and not losing site of the ongoing drink and drug related incidents, high street thefts, and missing person s reports that make up the day to day events. Working in partnership with the Police and other local government agencies has resulted in the arrest and successful conviction of a number of prolific offenders. APPENDIX 1 (Camera Network Details) Extent of Service 1. CCTV PTZ Town Centre and Neighbourhood Cameras In 2014/15 the number of CCTV cameras monitored by the Partnership Control Room is 578*. These include 382* fully functional pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) which are sited in Stevenage Town Centre, Stevenage Neighbourhoods, Hitchin Town Centre, Letchworth Town Centre, Royston Town Centre, Baldock Town Centre, Knebworth Town Centre, Hertford Town Centre Bishops Stortford Town Centre Ware Town Centre, Boreham Wood, Potters Bar, Bushy and for Central Bedfordshire Biggleswade, Ampthill, Sandy and Shefford.

8 P a g e 8 2. ANPR Cameras The Police in partnership with the CCTV Partnership use the CCTV system in conjunction with their Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operations. The system has 8 Fixed ANPR Cameras. The last figures issued claimed that these cameras are registering between 20,000 and 30,000 hits per hour of these between 10 and 15 % are of Police interest. This system is now monitored by the Intelligence Unit at Welwyn Garden City. 3. Re-deployable Cameras The use of re-deployable cameras connected to Stevenage Control Room continues to show the benefits of its flexibility and ease of movement from one location to another. 4G cameras are available with the availability of 4G no longer an issue with restricted coverage as technology moves on. There are currently 28 re-deployable cameras in operation across the partnership. Council heads are now looking to replace most of their stock at some point and hopefully in 2015 they will be reviewing costs to replace. East Herts have purchased three extra cameras, 4G, and are now reporting 5 cameras in total. 4. Schools Since 2003 the control room has been working with Hertfordshire Education Authority, Hertfordshire schools and Virgin Media to provide a CCTV network using the National Grid for learning. The national grid for learning is linked to the majority of schools in Hertfordshire. During 2014 the control room has been monitoring 23 schools. It is the schools which I will be placing most of my efforts for the foreseeable future ensuring the schools are kept up to date with any changes in technology such as ADPRO Fastrace 2 and also looking to increase the number of schools to be monitored. In April 2015 a new school came on board from Kings Langley, St.Pauls CofE primary school.

9 P a g e 9 Schools Broadband The system has now been connected to: Parmiters School High Elms Lane Watford Barclay School Walkern Road Stevenage Barnwell School Barnwell Road Stevenage Barnwell Middle Collenswood road Stevenage Belswain School Barnfield Hemel Hempstead Broadfields School Windmill Road Hemel Hempstead Broxbourne School High Street Hoddesdon Chessbrook Education Centre Tolpits Lane Watford Churchfield School Cheshunt Wash Waltham Cross Dame Alice Owens School Dugdale Hill Lane Potters Bar Fearnhill School Icknield Way Letchworth Highover Jmi School Hitchin Hitchin Peartree School Hydean Way Stevenage Rickmansworth School Park Road Rickmansworth Shepherds School Shepherds Lane Rickmansworth St Albans Girls School Sandridgebury Lane St.Albans St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Ainsdale Road South Oxley Watford St.Michaels School High Elms Lane Watford Swallowdell School Blackthorn Road Welwyn Garden City Tannerswood School Hazelwood Lane Abbots Langley Warrendell School Gosforth Lane, South Oxhey Watford Woodside School Goffs Oak Goffs Oak Divine Saviour School Broomfield Rise Abbots Langley BT Broadband System The control room has continued to look at new technology to address other requests for cameras. To date the following sites will be brought back into the control room on a similar system. These are: North Hertfordshire IP systems include Fairlands Valley Ridlins Stadium Weston road Cemetery Almonds Lane Cemetery Shephalbury Depot and Nursery Bandley Play Centre Canyon Play Centre Pin Green Play Centre St Nicolas Play Centre Stevenage Golf Club Bushy Rose Garden Stevenage Museum Wellfield Court Baldock Bowls Club The Lairage Multi Storey Car Park Hitchin Rugby Club Gaunts Way sports pavilion Ransoms Park Hitchin Letchworth Multi Storey Car Park Knights Templar Sport Centre Bedfordshire County Council Dunstable HWRC (currently off-line) Biggleswade HWRC Langford Village Hall

10 APPENDIX 2 (Summary Improvements during 2014/15) P a g e Two digital Radios (Stevenage, Hitchin) 2. New Server (CPC1800) 3. 4 New 42 inch Screens 4. ADPRO Fast Trace New full time members of Staff 6. Introduction of ABOT 7. Changed Engineering Company 2014/15 has been a successful year for the Partnership in relation to Control Room performance and growth of the partnership. There is enormous potential for the CCTV Control room to continue to diversify, expand and develop the services it offers during 2015/16.

11 P a g e 11 APPENDIX 3 (Control Room Statistics) Figures shown are for 12 month period between April and March 2013/ /15 CCTV Cameras Incidents Arrests Incidents Arrests Control Desk 2013/ / / /15 Central Beds East Hertfordshire Hertsmere North Hertfordshire Stevenage Totals ADPRO Cameras Control Desk Incidents 2013/14 Arrests 2013/14 Incidents 2014/15 Arrests 2014/15 Central Beds East Herts Hertsmere North Herts Stevenage Totals Police Evidence 2013/ / / /15 DVDs 2,642 50/wk. 2,519 48/wk. Footage sets 2,682 51/wk. 5, /wk. Public Requests 2013/ / / /15 Request Received /wk /wk Out of Hours Calls 2013/ / / /15 Assistance Requests 4,202 80/wk. 3, /wk

12 P a g e 12 Incident and Arrest figures for 2013/14 and 2014/15 CENTRAL BEDFORDSHIRE COUNCIL EAST HERTFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL HERTSMERE BOROUGH COUNCIL NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL

13 P a g e 13 STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL (Areas)

14 P a g e 14 DVD Prodcutions Figures Evidential DVDs Produced 1 st April st March 2014 Evidential DVDs Produced 1 st April st March 2015

15 P a g e 15 APPENDIX 4 (CCTV-IT) Over the last 12 months there have been a number of changes to our IT configuration. At the start of the year we found that BORIS (our database) had outgrown its temporary home, we therefore added a dedicated server (CPC1800). In the middle of the year due to an intermittent fault which was affecting our network connection speed, we had to replace our network switch; also the long awaited merger of the old fault database and BORIS took place. ABOT (Automated Back Office Tasks) is now responsible for: Basic maintenance of the data and tables stored in BORIS Production and distribution of daily, weekly and monthly management reports Production of Supervisor weekly paperwork Daily backup of BORIS BORIS is now responsible for: Reporting all equipment faults to their associated service providers and tracking faulty equipment s progress through the fault repair process. Informing equipment owners of their equipment s operational, repair and contract status.

16 P a g e 16 APPENDIX 5 (Independent Inspectors Report) Jane Clark 1.0 Introduction This report is prepared in accordance with paragraph of part III of the Code of Practice. This report covers the full year from April 2014 to March Jane Clark, Melanie Matthews, David Upson, Michael Durrant, Mr Gerry McCormick, have served as Independent Inspectors throughout the year. We are pleased to welcome three new inspectors during 2014/15 Mr Edmond Tickner, Mr Peter Elmer and Mr Roger Moulden. There are now eight Inspectors. 2.0 Achievements The Control Room has been inspected normally at least once per week except where Inspector illness has occurred. The duty roster has been replaced with one covering the current year. Visits attempt to cover days and time of day randomly. During random inspections, we are once again pleased to report that no misuse of the system has been seen and that the Control Room staff continue to be both helpful and cooperative. The major changes to the technology and to the Control Room appear to be working in a satisfactory manner. Payments to Independent Inspectors are without problems. Parking disc procedures for day time visits work well. For evening visits parking in the loading bays in front of the building causes no problems. The swipe cards issued to Inspectors are much appreciated and work well. 3.0 Code of Practice The Independent Inspection regime is covered by section 5.3 of the Code of Practice. Inspectors are allocated to specific weeks throughout the year to ensure regular inspection visits. Inspectors continue to value the unannounced aspect of their visits and continue to do this as much as possible. From the start of next year nine Independent Inspectors will attempt to ensure that the Independent Inspection regime is secure. As far as we are aware the Code of Practice document remains unchanged apart from the list of cameras and ADPRO units. 4.0 Recommendations 4.1 We have not received any revised list of cameras with the past two years. It is noted that the lists are never dated or identified in any way which makes it difficult for Inspectors to know which list is the latest camera list. Can such documents please be dated in the future? It would be helpful if when a new list is created it is circulated to all Inspectors. Please can this be done via to each inspector. 4.2 Communication between Inspectors and Mike Read takes place via the special book in which detail, queries and problems are entered together with the detail of checks undertaken during an Inspection visit. This method of communication works well and is expected to continue. 4.3 No further training has been offered to Inspectors who are expected to keep in touch with considerably changed and enhanced systems by a once-a-year briefing. Additional training and/or more in-depth briefings are necessary to ensure complete and thorough checking. 4.4 Problems are still being encountered by the lack of equipment for the Inspectors to use during their visits. With more staff on site plus police and engineering personnel, this occasionally results in visits being wasted when equipment is not

17 5.0 Other Matters P a g e 17 available for Inspectors to use. As a result it is recommended again that a desk and equipment is made available for Inspector usage. No other matters were raised.